Lying low ....

Our days are never dull, but often I don’t think our day will be of much interest to someone who will pop over to read this blog. So I don’t write. When I look again a whole week has gone by!

Highlights of the week gone by include a 2-hour visit with Walda and Sylma last Monday afternoon, `feet up’ drinking Rooibos on Walda’s back verandah while we sort of watched the children swimming. That was real food for the soul! Am so blessed with great friends!

We celebrated our homegroup leader’s birthday when we met together on Wednesday evening – it was a very impromptu celebration organised by the lady whose home we met in. It was great fun! It was special be able to pray with Eugene and share scripture and encourage him.

Jed was ill a fornight ago and is much better. He’s just a very chesty cough still and its overstayed its welcome, long ago! Last Thursday Ryan developed an ear and throat infection which was so sore that he actually cried in pain. I made some eardrops using coconut oil and garlic which worked very well and also doused him with tea made with honey and coconut oil. Lots of prayer of course, too! He’s doing a lot better, but his cough has also overstayed its welcome (and its new!). Ethan woke with a very sore head yesterday morning and we chose to spend the day resting and watched a couple of movies. He vomited twice in his sleep last night but then slept well for the rest of the night. He was very weak and sore still today and spent most of the day on the couch resting. This afternoon Dieter ‘crashed’ after lunch and needed a nap. We both felt exhausted and weak, but he needed it more than me. He woke feeling like a bus had run over him and feels he too is coming ‘down with something’. This is our week of nasal drops, ear drops, warm teas, honey, lemon and coconut milk. So, we’re just lying as low as we can and trying to recuperate.

Its been a busy day, we spent the morning making over 50 tubs of playdough and this afternoon I’ve been playing Mom’s taxi. Am looking forward to a good night’s rest and another semi-chilled day tomorrow.

PS: I typed this last night but never got a chance to post it. This morning I made another 50 tubs of playdough with Ryan and Jed, fun! Dieter is lying very low and feeling yucky but Ethan is on the mend. Ryan is desperate to get back to football but I have managed to convince him to wait one more day! Still lying low ......

Happy Birthday Adine!

For weeks now the boys have been looking forward to Adine’s 12^th birthday and party. The party plans have changed numerous times, as have our gift ideas. This past Saturday the big day arrived, and with great excitement.

Adine invited her friends to celebrate her birthday with her at her home and the theme dress was ‘something you’ll never see me wearing again’. I think our children were the only ones who made something especially for the occasion, and we had great fun doing it. We spent most of Friday designing and making different items to wear, and had great fun. It was an inspiringly creative day! Our end products weren’t anything spectacular, but they were each individual child’s own idea and that was special.

Ethan, who doesn’t procrastinate, was the first to get to work. He pulled out a grey t-shirt and some fabric markers that were a Christmas gift from his aunt, uncle and cousins in Dubai. He created a police vest and added some writing, badges and equipment using the markers. He drew the handcuffs, belt, police badge, etc himself and they were good! He also cut and stapled some card to make a headpiece that said ‘Police’ on it, and wore it over a blue cap once the elastic was attached.

Jed was next and his idea was simple. He wanted to dress as a doctor and we cut up a blue recycling rubbish bag to create a jacket. He then cut some buttons and a pocket out of paper and stuck them onto the jacket. He finished off his outfit with a blue hair net and a white theatre mask … he did look more like a theatre nurse, ‘crocs’ and all!

Ryan decided he wanted a suit made out of paper. So he stood like a statue for what seemed like forever while I taped many pages of the local newspaper together and created a suit jacket and long pants. He said he felt more like a robot because he couldn’t bend anything too much as the paper doesn’t have the same ‘give’ in it that material has.

Aimee picked a dress that too small for her and already in a bag to be given away (something she'll definitely not ever wear again!) and wanted to make a little crown so she could look like a princess. We recycled the top of an egg box and she painstakingly coloured it beautiful!

Princess Aimee

 

Adine was in her element on her special day, and when I asked her she confirmed that she’d had an amazing day and loved her party. All the children made an amazing effort to put some fun, vibrant outfits together – outfits they wouldn’t be seen walking around town in! It was great fun! 

Something you'll NEVER see me wearing again - with Adine, the birthday girl

 

Adine had made her own birthday cake together with Vicky, a family friend. She wanted something layered, like a wedding cake. They did an amazing job and Adine was very proud of the outcome!

Wow, what a beautiful cake! Well done Adine!

There was lots of fun and laughter all afternoon as the children swam and ate yummy party food. Moms and dads sat chatting in small groups on the back verandah and in the dining room where a delicious spread of tarts and snacks was available to the adults.

It was another one of those celebrations that leaves everyone involved delighting in good food, good company and good fun! What a wonderful celebration! Happy Birthday Adine!

Missing Cyprus

I miss Cyprus more some days than others. I’ve been missing Cyprus a lot lately and I’ve just recently realised that this week it will be exactly a year since we left Cyprus and headed down South. A whole year!

There are some of our personal belongings that I miss. I miss our lifestyle with frequent summer trips to the beach and frequent park outings and picnics. I miss cycling with the children to visit friends or go shopping. I miss buying very reasonable fruit and veggies in big quantities for €1,70 outside the Frutaria. We miss the food, especially taramasalata, tahina and Yvonne’s home cooking! I miss our trips around the island, especially across to the Northern part of the island when we had visitors.

But most of all, I miss special people. Most of the other things we miss we can live without or find alternatives locally, but the friends we made can’t be replaced as easily! For the first time even the children are talking about going back to Cyprus on holiday and I really wish we could.

So much has changed in Cyprus since we left. The church we were part of has closed down. A lot of our friends have moved on, either returning to their home countries or moving on to work in other parts of the world. The financial crisis has hit Cyprus and people are really struggling to get by. There is a lot about life in Cyprus that would have changed for us in this year.

I know, from past experience, that returning to something you’ve left behind is never the same. Things change, people change ……….. people leave, new people come and things are never the same. So, I suppose what I’m really missing is life as we knew it in Cyprus and the people we left behind. Friends really are a gift from God …. And we’re missing our friends a lot!

Weekend wandering .....

It’s 3pm in the afternoon and is dark and grey outside as the clouds have darkened with the promise of rain. Thunder rumbling in surround sound confirms something is going to happen soon. We’ve had a lovely day out and I’m glad we’re home and indoors before the heavens open. Dieter was up early this morning and went for an 8km bike ride with a friend in the forest nearby before we had breakfast. After we had eaten breakfast and were all showered and ready for the day we headed out on a well-planned mission. We stopped first to stock up on picnic supplies for lunch, buy a birthday gift for a little friend who is celebrating his 4^th birthday on Monday and look at some cricket bats. Then we stopped at the Outeniqua Farmer’s Market to say hi to a little friend who runs his own games stall there. We bought a smoothie or a hot drink each and some little tartlets, a selection of cheese cake and apple crumble, and found a bench near the kiddies play area and spent our time there chatting with a couple of homeschooling families. Ethan and Aimee tried their hand at a couple of the games at the ‘games stall’ and came away very happy with their ‘prizes’.

We then popped into the mall with a couple of purchases on our agenda. The first was for Jed who has now purchased his first camera, a little Nikon AX500. After doing research on cameras, both new and 2^nd hand, this special was perfect for his budget and needs. He is very keen on photography and can’t wait to experiment with his new toy. The next huge priority was a birthday gift for a pre-teen girl who is celebrating next weekend and loves all things arty. We managed to find her something we think is really nice and hope she will get hours of fun out of! There were a couple of other stores we went into before rushing across town to get Ryan and Ethan to their football match.

Dieter, Jed, Aimee and I had something small to eat while the boys warmed up for their game and then we went out to stand next to the field and watch them in action. Ryan offered to play goalie for the u15 team as both their goalies didn’t arrive. It was a very hard game with the opposing team dominating and attempting to score often. Ryan had to work very hard in the bigger goal box. Twice one of his team mates tried to avert a goal and almost scored an own-goal. It was a nail-biting affair! They ended the game 7-0 down. Ethan played for his usual team, but there were only 6 children on each side and neither team had a goalie. I’m sure it will be considered a friendly. Ethan worked very hard running across the big field for most of the game. He was exhausted when the game was over, but had great fun! The games ended just as the drizzle turned into hard drops of rain and we were very glad to get in to the warm car!

So, we’re all indoors while the rain pelts down. Dieter has the tent up in the garden to test if it is waterproof and is busy pumping up mattresses so that he can spend the night in the tent with some of the children. I think Jed and I will stay indoors – he still has a really rough cough and didn’t have a good night’s sleep last night because he was coughing so much. Who knows what the rest of the weekend holds in store, but it has started busily!

PS:  Yesterday afternoon we went down to Victoria Bay so that we could have a swim and the boys could use the boogie-boards. Dieter and Aimee tried to swim in the tidal pool but after seeing many jelly-fish decided to rather swim in the sea. Ethan and Ryan spent a lot of time together boogie-boarding on the waves and had so much fun. Jed and I relaxed on the grass, sitting comfortably in our little wooden chairs. We also played some cricket together with the little ones and the sons of another homeschooling family we have met who were sitting close-by. It was such a fun afternoon. Just after 6pm we packed up and treated ourselves to some KFC before heading home and turning in for the evening. What a great start to the weekend!

Picnic fun at the Botanical Gardens

I’ve learnt that the best way to organise a social get together is to find one other family that will definitely be able to join us … and then throw out the invitation far and wide for others to join us. I did just that this week. I arranged with Annelie and her 3 boys to join us for a lunch-time picnic at the Botanical Gardens, and then invited every other homeschooling family I have contact details for.

Wednesday was a lovely sunny day and the perfect day for a picnic. The botanical gardens makes a perfect venue …….. There are lots of nooks and crannies for the little ones to explore and animal life to discover, some nice green grass to play and run around on and lots of trees to shade our picnic mats. I counted 8 families that came to join us, with a total of 25 children who were either playing cricket or feeding fish or on outdoor expeditions galore. It was a wonderful afternoon. It was great connecting with other moms too – most of us haven’t seen each other since before Christmas!

Here are some photies of our time together …. Just a few!

Full of smiles - my boy!

Jed - being interuppted as he chats with Karla

Aimee in her element !

The dudes enjoying a game of cricket - Ethan's wide awake and ready for that ball!

Annerie and Ami

Vicky and Annelie catching up

Lots more heart to heart mom chats in progress

Food, fun and chatting galore

A super-duper day!

I usually lie down with Aimee when she goes to bed at night and stay until she falls asleep. The other night, just before she fell asleep she whispered in my ear, ‘Tomorrow is going to be a super-duper day!’. And she was right!

She was excited because she knew that the trampoline mat had been re-stitched and was ready to put back onto the trampoline. (The trampoline has been out of action for about for about 3 weeks and we’re all looking forward to being able to use it again!) Something else was happening too, can’t remember right now what it was, but this is how our day looked eventually:

After breakfast I popped into town. Now that our business registration has been completed, we need to open a business bank account. I’ve nailed it down to 2 possibilities, either FNB or Nedbank and went to investigate both. My hopes of opening an account that day were dashed by the news that I need to wait for some lengthy documents which are probably in the post as they are needed to open an account. I found FNB’s bank charges to be far less than Nedbank and am very impressed by their innovative approach to banking, will probably open the account there when the documents arrive.

I then popped into Edgars and found a lovely pair of denims and some underwear. That was easy enough! I got home just before tea time and was immediately roped into helping install the trampoline mat. It’s quite a process and took at least 3 strong arms to fight against the tension of the springs and get the mat hooked on. Without a rope, we would have never have been able to do it! It’s up and in use already and the children are all so glad to have it back! We love our trampoline!!

Just after tea Dieter spotted something on the neighbour’s wall: a ‘blouaap’. A monkey, about Aimee’s size with a tal about a metre long! It was quite a sight to behold. We aren’t far from the forests or the river that runs through our neighbourhood, but we are almost exactly in the middle of the neighbourhood and a bit far away from the buck and monkeys that others get to see. This monkey was clearly out of place, but comfortable walking from one yard to the next – and I think we are the only people who actually saw it! It was an amazing treat!

One of our neighbours has recently sold her home and the new owners have decided to cut down many of the trees that fill the front yard. The activity brought an unusual noisiness to our neighbourhood and provided an exciting distraction to our normal daily routine. At one stage we actually took a walk across the road to get a up close view of the activity and it was great fun!

Later in the afternoon Aimee, Ethan and I had great fun doing some painting together. They lay down on the floor so I could draw an outline of their bodies on some newsprint and then they each painted on some clothes and accessories. The outcome was amazing! I cut out Aimee’s outline and she was thrilled …. Here was a life-size picture that looked so much like her, oh, she loved it!

When Dieter took Ryan and Ethan to football, I cut Jed’s hair for him. He’s still not feeling 100% himself (has a dry cough and fighting off fever every now and again) but he really wanted a haircut. He looks so smart again, my handsome boy!

The day ended with a lovely meal of lentils and flatbreads which we enjoy wrapping into a roti with some greek yoghurt. Aimee and I spent a good hour rolling and frying the flatbreads and I was really glad when time came to sit down and take a break in the evening. I often don’t blog because I don’t think that we’ve done anything worth recording, but I realise that each day is filled with moments of wonder that I will want to remember a long time from now.

Another day in paradise!

Ethan doing some careful work on the bench he put together

The new pipe is in - fill up the hole again guys!

Calling in the back up help .. .everyone grab a shovel!

Aimee hammering away and having a great time

Quiet dynamics

Its funny how adding or taking just one person away from a situation can complete change the dynamics! I see it time and time again as we homeschool. During times when Dieter was off from work and at home with us, or when a relative or friend was staying with us, I found that we weren’t able to continue as normal with our very flexible homeschooling routine.

Dieter has been out for a few hours over the past 3 days and has taken Ethan with him each time. Some homeschooling friends moved house on Thursday and Friday and Dieter (and Ethan) went along with strong muscles and a trailer and helped them move. On both Thursday and Friday morning, once the chores were done, Ryan, Jed and I spent hours lying on my bed together while I read CS Lewis’s ‘A horse and his boy’. Aimee played quietly on the floor, either in my room or hers, with Playmobil, lego or dolls and was very happy. And then I realised anew what a difference it makes to take one, or two as in this case!, people out of an equation.

This morning Dieter went into town to buy some supplies and Ouma went with him to buy some veggies, so they took Ethan and Aimee along. The older boys were thrilled that we could carry on reading, we’re really enjoying this book together! Again we thoroughly enjoyed a peaceful quiet time together with no interruptions or issues to contend with.

Jed hasn’t been well for the past 40hours or so, fighting a fever and a throbbing head. He’s been very much out of action and I’m taking today very slowly too, so we spent the afternoon reading the rest of the book together. It’s been very relaxing, and was a wonderful read! Ryan, who was supposed to have read the book a while ago and has been resisting, enjoyed it so much he wants to now read the whole Narnia series! I’m thrilled!